Source: Supplied.

MotoGP organiser Dorna has been fined millions of Euros by the Spanish supreme court, on top of extensive personal fines handed out to CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta and CFO Enrique Aldama.

The fines date back to stock sales in 2003 according to reports in Europe, confirming that the court found Dorna and its bosses to be simulating the sale of shares in a bid to avoid paying income tax.

According to a statement released by Dorna this week, the move was a leveraged recapitalisation to a company also owned by Ezpeleta and Aldama, among others. The court’s final fines were a reduction on initial fines from the lower court.

“Despite holding the decisions of the courts in the highest regard, Dorna would like to express its disagreement with the content of the decision of the supreme court regarding the classing of the ‘leverage recapitalisation’ transactions performed in 2003 and 2004, from the tax law perspective, as simulations,” a statement released this week read.

“Transactions of this kind are commonplace in the economies of neighboring countries and are perfectly valid from the corporate law perspective. The fact that they are not to be classed as simulations is acknowledged by several supreme court justices, who have made known expressly their disagreement with the content of the judgements by expressing dissenting opinions. Dorna is analysing the possible ways in which these judgements might be contested.”

Dorna has been fined €17.2 million ($25.5 million AUD), while Ezpeleta will be forced to repay €3.9 million ($5.8 million AUD) and Aldama €2.7 million ($4 million AUD). The statement from Dorna has announced they intend to collectively contest the charges.